Brussels

I've been to Brussels to map it up workwise. Two days of training with mainly interesting lectures, on the Constitution, on Competitiveness and the Lisbon Agenda. A visit to the Parliament just before Ms Merkel arrived. Then a third day of personal meetings in the Commission and the Council - bumped into our minister of Agriculture just as the meeting on sugar finished. It's a completely different thing to be there and to hear the talk, than to browse Europa... and I have no regrets that I wasn't present at the ministerial eGovernment conference in Manchester. If there was a pulse in Tunis last week, I guess it's just the every day life in Brussels. But why is it still so distant from Stockholm although 10 years of membership? A paper column mentioned Sweden as the nation that joined the Union when people long at last realized that the Union actually would not join Sweden...

WSIS in Tunis

Arrived to the hotel in the outskirts of Tunis after a very long trip. Arrangements and organisation for the World Summit on Information Society are impressive and security is rigorous. Information material on the web before the conference focused mainly on arrangements and how to organise things, and not on what would be treated in the seminars so we needed some orientation time on the floor. However, after the first hours of desorientation I found several quite interesting meetings; seminars and stands - relevant for my work in e-government. I was told that 17000 people was expected and 28000 registered for the summit. In such a crowd you surely find something of your taste. Some of the content was a repetition from the European IT Forum in Paris (see postings from September), like Nicholas Negropontes 5 minute speech in the plenary session on the "one lap top per child" project. In the following afternoon, the stand was crowded.

Harold Pinter

...and the Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 goes to Harold Pinter - “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms” - and is an author that is already famous :-). An oldie. I remember we once saw the Birthday Party in Sheffield some years ago in the Studio - never been attracted to the theatre, usually reality is fascinating enough, but I enjoy the absurdist plays. However, I cannot really see it as literature and especially not awarded literature. This is closer than Dario Fo, but when are they going to take a closer look at literary qualities? Tomas Tranströmer, it's written in the sky.

John Banville

Lastly, the author named to receive the Booker Prize 2005 was John Banville, Ireland, for his novel The Sea ... "a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected". And now we await the announcement from the Swedish Academy on the Nobel Prize in literature.

Virtual Society

In the latest issue of Axess, an essay brings up the socialisation on the internet by online role playing games such as World of Warcraft. It gives an interesting introduction for those of us that didn't yet take part in these games, but the essay turns more around the rules and the codes to follow than the fun and the feeling of creating something together.

World Summit on the Information Society

I just got the accreditation for the UN WSIS phase 2 coming up in November. "In the second phase of WSIS efforts are being made to put the Plan of Action into motion and working groups have been set up to find solutions and reach agreements in the fields of Internet governance and financing mechanisms." Looking forward to that. Carl Bildt made some comments on his blog. Will be interesting to go there.

Bokmässan pågår

Hade varit kul att vara där, men istället följer jag den hos tidningen Svensk Bokhandel, SvB.

There is also an English edition of the journal of the Swedish publishers and bookstores.

More Cosmopolitans

I am beginning to rethink on the well educated cosmopolitan elite. The taxi driver that took me to my apartment in Stockholm originally comes from Turkey but share his time between driving taxi in Stockholm (Sweden) and working in a casino in San Diego (California, USA). While driving he taught me a lesson of bargaining in Tunisia... cool.

Scarce Resource

Power, electricity, is a resource that is more scarce than we usually think of in the part of the world where I spend most of my time. The laptops in the program One laptop per child are equipped with a crank. And the parents were really happy when the kids used the laptops at home at night, because they got some light in the house. Kurt Westh Nielsen wrote this Danish
article.

China

China was frequently mentioned in presentations and discussions, mainly as a threat and not as a potential market. It is considered as a larger threat to Europe than India much because of its severe system regulating family size and growth of population. That is also the reason why China's economy will take off much faster than the one of India: it's easier to obtain a high GDP/capita if you can hold back the number of capitas...

Being Bold - Maybe Tomorrow...

This morning, Lester Thurow was talking about the necessity of being bold in different aspects. One of them was being bold in the gender aspect. There is no reason that men should rule the world, he said, we really need to turn to the women as well, it's vital. However, looking at the agenda, the 15 presentations yesterday were all made by men and also today the stage has belonged to the men. For someone interested in gender studies it would have been fun to know if the discussion on networks (brief) and competitiveness (extensive) had turned out differently with some female voices in the choir.

Excellence and Competitiveness

There are many wise words being said here, but today's most impressive presentation was the one of Luc Soete on Activating knowledge. He also took part in the lunch discussion we just finished, together with Jeremy Rifkin and Lester Thurow. Taking off fram the competitiveness of Europe, we came to talk a lot about China. Lester argued that the chinese discrimination of rural people needs to come to an end. For my part, I see the discrimination of rurals, or rater uneducated, increasing as a result of globalisation. He agreed on that, but still meant that we should think it over, be careful about it. Mr Soete mentioned that we in Europe need to change our models of social welfare, which are to a high degree founded on a base of labour rather than knowledge work - being a knowledge worker you have not the same reasons to retire at 58 as has a physical worker. Still, a high number of European knowledge workers enjoy this welfare system.

Being Mobile

We had a lab on Future of wireless at lunch time. Nicholas (who is among all other things also on the Board of Motorola) stressed the fact that mobility is the act of working away from your primary workplace. It still needs to be said out loud. So many times mobility is exemplified with cellphones and nothing else. Too much attention on the devices and not on the functions, if you ask me. Being mobile is a matter of accessing data wherever you are. Identification and security issues can cause problems. But once your corporate data is mobilized, then you can change processes. Last week I got an impressive presentation on the Danish use of mobile solutions in Care. Back to our lunch-discussion: besides security matters, the ease of management and the scalability are crucial. Upon 3G Negroponte concluded that it is a sad story, a false path that should have been abandoned long ago - it was too little, too early.

From the conference

This is a busy schedule. From 8.30 am to 4.10 pm we just had 30 minutes break but listened to 15 presentations and 2 panel discussions...it's time for some reflections on what to bring back home. (No, we don't call it a day yet.) By the way, there is an IDC blog, too.

Wiki....what!?

So, I find myself at the IDC European IT Forum in Paris together with numerous business leaders, IT professionals etc. We just enjoyed the first session, and listening to among other speakers Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT Labs and one of the founders of Wired Magazine. He addressed Europe and it's competiveness in creativity and innovation. Talking about the power in free and open source he mentioned wikipedia and asked the audience to raise their hands if ever used Wikipedia. Approximately 15 % did...and I was astonished of being part of such a minority in such a crowd...

Paris: European IT Forum 2005

Monday-Tuesday I will be at IDC European IT Forum 2005 in Paris.

French

From Ludovic Copéré I got the link to Wired and this article on French blogging. When I blogged in French I just did it because I consider it as my second language, I have always felt close to the French esprit, spent a lot of time in France and studied at the Sorbonne. However, it wasn't until now that I learnt that French is the second blog-language after English. But it only feels natural. Interesting article, always nice to have gut-feelings confirmed. And soon I'll be in Paris again!

Google Blog Search

I just tried the beta version of Google Blog Search for the first time and was happy to find my blog! There is certainly no reason for my friend Torstensson to complain about the fact that I didn't send him the link...

Ubiquitous

Last week I was at a conference in Salzburg (Austria) on eGovernment. One of the presentations that inspired me the most was on ubiquitous government. I cannot really explain why. At least since 1999 I have heard that technology is becoming a part of everyday life. I've heard about the intelligent refridgerator more times than I can count. And I have seen presentations on u-gov before. Suddenly it was just more clear to me, what it means to access services anywhere and at anytime. Maybe because I have been much preoccupied with channel strategies and value networks lately. And started to use wireless networks. I'll probably get back to this.

Future Lab

Yesterday we started off a scenario planning with a work shop at work. We're using the TAIDA-method taught at Kairos Future . It's been a long time since I worked with them and I enjoyed the future lab, although impatiently waiting for the analysis and outcome. However, it was good to look back and sum up the developments of the past 5-10 years - incredible how technology has changed our behaviors!

The Booker Prize shortlist

Still haven't read Ian McEwan's September but yet I think it's a pity that he was cut from the list. Ishiguro is still in the game, as is Zadie Smith

Busy busy bee

Oh, I am afraid the old cliché "time flies" is right on the spot... at the moment I am quite focused at my work and as I decided not to blog about my work, well, it's silent here. In a few weeks I will go to the IDC European IT Forum 2005. Nicholas Negroponte is one of the big names and that's how I found this old interview from Wired 1995...

Post och kommunikation

Alltid lika fascinerad av kommunikation och kanalstrategier! För två veckor sedan var jag hos tandläkaren. Han skulle skicka en remiss och det skulle ta 3-6 månader, enligt honom, innan jag fick tid hos specialist. Sedan reste jag bort i jobbet en vecka. När jag kom hem helgen därpå och gick igenom posten fann jag en kallelse till specialisten, som hade avsatt tid följande förmiddag. Jaha, det var ju trevligt att det gick fort, men om jag varit borta ytterligare två dagar? (Jag hade missat tiden men ändå fått betala.) Hur lång tid kommer det att dröja innan myndigheter, företag & organisationer inser att inte alla kunder är ett med sin folkbokföringsadress och att kommunikationsmönster kan variera?

Ensemble - c'est tout

Un des livres dont je me rajouis de lire cet automne, c'est le dernier d'Anna Gavalda Ensemble- c'est tout. Il sera publié en suédois en octobre, d'ailleurs. "Ce qui empêche les gens de vivre ensemble, c’est leur connerie, pas leurs différences..."

Keeping a Journal

Back from one week's training in group dynamics and leadership (UGL - Understanding Group and Leader). We were encouraged to keep a personal journal every day as a tool to reflect upon what happened, think things through, their impact on myself, how to relate to it and so on. 1. you can repeat, 2. refer, 3. review and 4. you can reflect. It struck me when I read the morning paper today, SvD, about young people that blog to keep their friends and family informed. A girl said that she feels pretty free in writing but that she leaves out the most private, things of concern to her closest. So, what if the blog is her diary? And what if she is most preoccupied with things of less importance. And leaves the deeper or tougher experiences aside? What then? Because a diary used to be a secret place to develop inner thoughts and feelings. A place not only to repeat or review but also for reflection...

The Booker Prize Longlist

The other day the Booker Prize longlist was released. I have to admit that I haven't read any of these books but I was happy to see Ian McEwan on the list. I very much enjoyed reading Atonement and Enduring Love and I will read September, for sure. And then probably think once again that I should finish Joyce's Ulysseus... Anyhow, the shortlist will be presented on 8 September and the winner on 10 October.

Branding a Capital

I've been on vacation but now I'm back at the computer with a reflection on tourism and branding. In early summer the city of Stockholm announced the new tag: Stockholm - capital of Scandinavia saying they want to be confident and bold... However, above all in the era of globalisation borders and traditional capitals seems very old fashioned, almost obsolete, to use as a base for such a branding. During my holiday I passed by Genève - where people meet. A much more up to date slogan - I like!

Going

It took a while before I started blogging but here I am! As far as I can remember I have been interested in media, publishing etc. Started working with the Internet 1997 at the launch of Bokus and studied Electronic Publishing in 1998. I've been sceptical to some extent but things have evolved and for sure I can also see the possibilities. Anyhow, now I am up and running and I hope to create something great.

Kundfokus

I veckan var jag på ett seminarium på KTH om the Opportunity Frontier med docent Terrence Brown, som i förbifarten påpekade att kundorientering är en märklig term när man egentligen syftar på kundfokus. Jag håller med. Artikeln The Quest for Customer Focus i Harvard Business Review (april 2005) gör gällande att en organisation har 4 steg att ta sig igenom för att nå verkligt kundfokus: 1. Communal Coordination där man tar fram och standardiserar information från olika kontaktpunkter i organisationen, utifrån kund nota bene. 2. Serial Coordination då man analyserar och drar slutsatser av dessa historiska uppgifter. 3. Symbiotic Coordination då man tar klivet över till att förutse framtida beteenden och då också kan vara med och forma dem. Slutligen 4. Integral Coordination vilket innebär att den vunna kunskapen sipprat ut och används i organisationen, i den dagliga verksamheten, som därmed genomsyras av kundfokus. Att öka kundfokus är inte bara en fråga om att bygga upp en kunddatabas, utan det är en lärandeprocess som pågår i årsvis.

Pattern Recognition

After reading in Axess issue on the future (The future is so passé, 2004:9) about William Gibson's Pattern Recognition I was inspired to read the book. It didn't really correspond to my expectations but I enjoyed the basic idea. "We have no future because our present is too volatile. […] We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern Recognition."

Känna mönster

När jag läst i Axess nummer om framtiden (2004:9) om William Gibson's Känna mönster blev jag nyfiken på boken och valde att läsa den svenska utgåvan. Den levde inte riktigt upp till mina förväntningar men jag gillade den konceptuellt. "Vi har ingen framtid eftersom vår nutid är för flyktig. [...] Det enda vi ägnar oss åt är att hantera risker. Väva scenarier för stunden. Känna mönster."